Say, these weeds aren't ba-a-a-a-d:

Townsend goats will chomp your lawn into shape

Mitzi Roy, owner of Mapledell Farm in Townsend checks on her goats while at the home of Lunenburg resident Marie Doucette on Thursday afternoon. Mapledell Farm has begun renting their goats out to home owners who need help with lawn maintence. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / Ashley Green (Ashley Green)

LUNENBURG -- Marie Doucette has been living in her home nestled off of Hickory Hills Lake for 30 years. She does her best to keep her yard up to par, but the weeds were getting out of control.

She didn't want to use chemicals with a body of water so close by. Her terrain is rocky, so machinery wouldn't cut down the mountain of weeds sprouting in her yard. Even if machinery could work, Doucette has been hospitalized due to poison ivy -- one of the main culprits growing in her yard.

Then one day, a flier at work caught her eye: goat rentals.

Doucette, a local school-bus driver, had heard of the practice of having goats gnaw weeds down to their roots, but she never could find a local business.

Archie, a goat owned by Mitzi Roy of Mapledell Farm in Townsend, hangs out at the home of Lunenburg resident Marie Doucette on Thursday afternoon. Mapledell Farm has begun renting their goats out to home owners who need help with lawn maintence. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / Ashley Green (Ashley Green)

Once she saw a flier from her colleague, Mitzi Roy, she jumped at the opportunity.

"We are on a lake," Doucette said. "When you read about the environment, it makes more sense to do this than dump a bunch of chemicals and have it seep into the lake."

Roy, a Townsend resident and owner of Mapledell Farm, recently started the goat-rental business because she saw how effective the goats were in her yard.

"I know what my property was like and how difficult it was to try to clear it and keep it clear," Roy said.

And then, of course, there's "the cuteness factor," as Roy put it.

Last Saturday, Roy dropped off four goats -- Archie, Eddie, and Abbott and Costello -- to clean up Doucette's yard.

"They will eat it down, and then you can maintain it," Roy said. "It is not gone. It is still under the ground, but now you can kind of keep it clear and keep it from coming up the way that it was."

Roy said goats will eat a "wide range of unwanted vegetation," including poison ivy, Oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose and other abstract vegetation.

The goats will be at Doucette's for a week. Roy recommends a week rental because it takes at least a day for the goats to get acclimated and begin eating the weeds.

Abbott, a goat owned by Mitzi Roy of Mapledell Farm in Townsend, enjoys a special treat of hay at the home of Lunenburg resident Marie Doucette on Thursday afternoon. Mapledell Farm has begun renting their goats out to home owners who need help with lawn maintence. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / Ashley Green (Ashley Green)

The rental fee is about $50 per day for local residents, Roy said.

The four goats are all male and neutered. Roy said that means there is no way to make money off them -- except renting them out to eat weeds.

"I have them," she said. "I thought they worked good in my yard so I thought, 'Why not try to make a little money off of them?'"

Doucette's yard is the first job for Archie, Abbott, Costello and Eddie, but Doucette said she will already be calling on the four goats again to clean up another section of her yard.

The goats are fenced in by a moveable electric fence that is about 150 linear feet, Roy said. The goats stay within the fence throughout the rental time.

Roy said the goats are perfect for historical sites and other land that needs special consideration because they are agile and light on their feet as opposed to using machinery. She hopes to put the goats to work at town buildings as well as residential homes.

Roy will come by once a day to bring water, food and hay while also making sure the goats are still "working."

"Goats are really hard to keep enclosed," she said. "Someone once told me, 'If it doesn't hold water, it won't hold a goat.'"

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